docsmachine

Alternate Punchline

... I think Miki can take 'er. :)

Doc.

Merry Christmas, Everybody!

Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa, Festivus, ALL the Happy Holidays!

As another year draws to a close, I'm still deeply thankful for all of you- readers, donors, book-buyers, followers, gearheads and other assorted nutballs. I'm glad all of you- past and present- have enjoyed my works, whatever they are, and hope all of you will enjoy what's coming up this next year, and however long after that. 

The next couple of strips might just be fillers, I dunno. :...

Abject failure...

(Not the sketch- that's just a quickie from a recent book sale. :) That's just there 'cause I haven't posted anything arty in a while. :D )

But, looks like I'm not going to make it with the books for Christmas. I was finally hoping to launch on Monday, and I still don't even have a single cover done- and what I have done, I don't really like.

Plus I'm having minor but nonetheless annoying issues with the printer, still keep finding minor issues in the art...

The TWB Christmas Special!

Going a little off-track for a bit, ladies and gents. I've been  working like a dog to try and get a multitude of projects finished up  and out the door before the end of the year. January and part of February are generally a slow-ish time for me anyway (at least as far as  sales and custom work) and I would very much like to have my tables as  clear as possible before the end of the year, so I don't have any- or at  least as few as possible- proverbial albatrosses ha...

Further Filler Apologies...

While the strip is mostly right, it's not the whole story. Keep it under your hat, but the truth is that part of the recent delays have been because of the next books. :)

I'd wanted to release those back in October as is my established schedule, but I've run into one delay after another. First, I have in fact been busy in the shop, both with customer stuff and a couple of personal projects, some kinda vital, some merely useful.

Second, I got a late start ...

I'd like to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!

 Even those of you outside the US, to whom this is merely another Thursday.  :)

I'd like to say I'm very thankful for what I have, that I've been able  to earn at least a modest living off of something I enjoy doing, and for every one of you ladies and gentlemen- and/or whatever pronoun you wish  to use- who make such a thing possible through your generosity.

I hope you'll all stick with me- and us- through 2020 and beyond.  

And have a happy, safe a...

Gotta do the filler bit again...

I have to apologize, again, for further filler, ladies and gents. As the comic says (or rather, will say, as I type this :D ) I've been trying hard to get a bunch of (often overdue) work done  before the end of the year. I've been getting in late- later than usual-  and also having trouble switching mental gears back to "comic mode". 

All  I can ask is a little more patience- I hope to have my tables (at least  the ones in the shop) largely cleared ...

Grabbing the flag

"Y'know, it did seem like it took an unusually long time to get here from the flag station..."

:)

Doc.

Fan Service

Really. This was an actual request. I was in a hurry and may have gotten the words muddled a bit, but I suspect that wouldn't have made much difference.

:D

Doc.

Wednesday Bonus Strip

An early option for the dialogue, which of course suggested a slightly risque` punchline. :)

Doc.

Behind the Scenes

I've been spending some of my spare time recently working on the next TWB books, this time we're up to the "Longest Day" storyline. I'd asked about this a little while back, to see if you ladies and gents would prefer One Big Book, or possibly as many as four smaller books.

I'd very much like to work up everything to the end of the night at Howie's after the game day- that might well wind up being as many as four slightly smaller than normal books (roughly 100 strips, rather than the us...

World's First Official Whiteboard Video!

Okay, okay, don't get too excited, it's just me screwing around with some cue cards. I've been needing to get my proverbial feet wet for a while now, and I really need some practice with the editing suite (as well as a better mic, probably a better camera, better lighting, a manicure... :) )

Hopefully it's entertaining even just for a quickie test vid, let me know what you think.

More, of course, to come.

Doc.

Random musing about comics...

I was just thumbing through a copy of Penguin Dreams and Stranger  Things, which is of course one of the old Bloom County books.

I'd  had this one years ago, but it had gotten lost to the mists of history  years ago. I suspect the Sandinistas ate it. I recently found this copy  and one of Happy Trails at the local secondhand book store- the  same place I found a 2019-09-21 10:28:25 +0000 UTC View Post

Done! (... mostly. :)

After a little over a month of spare time, and costing a fair bit more than I'd hoped, it's finally done! (Apart from a few little detail bits.)

It's not perfect, there's runs in the paint and some of my welds are a little sloppy, but it's solid as a rock, has lots more legroom and workspace, and is modular and somewhat customizable.

If you haven't been watching the 2019-09-14 09:02:07 +0000 UTC View Post

Workin' on that milestone...

For a little while there, we were past the next milestone marker, whereupon I promised to make a series of videos showing how I go about making the wonderment that is TWB.

Since then we've dropped back down below that, but I'm not gonna nitpick, I'm gonna make 'em anyway. :)

I've been- and continue to be- chronically short on spare time (my to-do list is roughly four times longer than I can be expected to live :) ) but I made the time recently to build myself a new computer desk, ...

Welcome Aboard!

I'd like to welcome all the new patrons, and thank you all- new and old alike- for your continued support. If I'd been smart, I'd have had some shiny new artwork finished beforehand for you all, but I've never exactly been accused of being a great businessman. :D

Along with that, I wish I had the time to regularly produce extra strips and art to post here, but as anyone who has tried to run a small business on their own knows, spare time is scarce indeed.

I try to post what I can,...

Progress

 Virtually all of this past weekend was spent working on my desk project- as it required that I tear down the old desk, and thus my only functional PC, I had to do as much as I could over the weekend while I didn't have to do a comic or ship parts.

It's not done yet, by any means, but I have the frame pretty much finished and got my PC set back up so I can get you all your daily dose of TWB. :D

The last major bits are mainly just the wood- I put the old desk's top sections ba...

Small personal project

Bit of a non-art post for those of you of a mechanical bent. :)

This is the current state of this (now past) weekend's project. What is it , you ask? Why, it's just a desk. :)

No, really. :) My current computer desk- in fact, the only computer desk I've ever had, is a cheap pressboard thing, that I've moved around so many times most of the screws are stripped. I've also had to modify and reinforce it multiple times over the years, and now it's just a mess...

Drab office walls

I almost made the walls of Cara's office red brick, like out on the main floor, but I figured I'd leave it blank-ish so I can have her personalize it with photos and other momentoes as time goes on.

But then this idea occurred to me... :)

Doc.

A bit late...

My apologies for disappearing, I hadn't realized how long it'd been. Summer is, of course, my "busy season", and there simply aren't enough hours in a day to get everything done that I want to do.

This didn't turn out quite like i wanted- I was actually hoping to try some new techniques I was learning about... a month and a half ago. :D

I'll be trying again, of course, but it may be towards fall and winter before I can really sit down and do some actual experimenting.

Doc. 2019-07-21 05:16:32 +0000 UTC View Post

Necessary Sketch

Still not feelin' anywhere near 100% yet, so while I'm still getting a little done out in the shop, I have to take a lot of breaks. I've been trying to use the downtime somewhat productively, and one of those ways has been watching art tutorials.

So here's a quick sketch based off a drawing I stole at random online, let's see what I can do with it. :)

Doc.

Gone Off His Meds...

Trying to get back into the swing of normal color art, and I don't think I'm doing too bad, considering the slapdash book sketch I started with, but holy crap am I out of practice. This took me several hours longer than it should have.

Workin' my way towards regular comics starting back up this coming Monday, but reserving the right to keep going with sketches a little while longer, if I need to, as I don't seem to be recovering quite as fast as I'd ho...

And we're back! Mostly!

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your patience during my impromptu hiatus.  I wish I'd had a solid buffer to cover events like that, but that's just how it goes.

TWB will be back to daily updates, but for this coming week will likely be just sketches and filler gags. I hope to be back to full color regular updates next Monday, but possibly earlier if I'm feeling up to it.

As always, thank you all for your support, and I hope to keep providing you more TWB-off-the-wall-nes...

Out sick for the week

Sorry, ladies and gentlemen, but I'm out badly ill, likely for the rest of the week, I have temporary and occasional access through my laptop, but it;s impossible to  even update TWB proper, let alone work on an  actual strip.

Hopefully I'll be back by Monday, but even that's kind of up in the air at the moment,

Please have patience

Doc.

A little something I've been working on, part 1:

Came up with a new little kinda-advertising pamphlet to include in with orders. :)

I'm thinking I might also drive around this summer and sneak a bunch into the racks at all the touristy locations, slip 'em in with all the flyers for hunting lodges and fishing tours. :D

Doc.

The Season of the Halberd

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who bought some books during this last release- glad to see some new names in with all the familiar ones. :)

And of course plenty of you opted for a book sketch s well- I took scans of some of the better ones, and the above is one such image, cleaned up and colored. It's helpful to have a sort of "theme" for the sketches, as it can often be tough to come up with thirty or forty different poses. Last Christmas, I had the guys with old-f...

Happy Easter!

I was looking for some artwork for another project, and ran across this fun old sketch from a while back. Figured a lot of you may not have seen it,it just happened to be seasonally appropriate, and hey, we haven't seen Rainy in a while anyway. :)

Doc.

Miki gets kinky...

I'm sure he's talking about her margarita blender.

Doc.

Caught up!

As of Wednesday afternoon, all orders have been shipped! Not having to pack and wrap all those beer glasses saved a BUNCH of time. :)

Better still, the folks at the Post Office let me know there's a cheaper way to ship for you Canadian and Overseas folks. It's basically the equivalent of Media Mail- the package can't be any thicker than a stuffed envelope, and two books in a cardboard mailer easily qualifies.

And it's half the cost I'd been quoted earlier...

The Next Books- a question:

Thank you all for your surprising and rapid response to the new book launch! Monday's gonna be a busy one. :)

But, while I have your attention, I have a question: The next storyline following the contents of Book 12, is the famous "Longest Day" tale, with everyone at the paintball field and Doc goes nuts with the Gatling gun. That's all one long storyline, and stretches out to about 400 strips.

A typical TWB book is between 100 and 120 strips. The biggest one, Book 4- also a singl...